Breakfast was nice again, Phil even had smoked kippers No, don't faint, he does like fish sometimes

Last night we found a leaflet for the Welsh highland Railway (Porthmadoc branch) which did footplate rides. Since Jo's reaction to this was "drool, drool", this was the first place we stopped. It was cool! It was nice seeing everything and getting to pull the bell cord (this was all she was allowed to do) and apparently it was her fault that the driver forgot to take the handbrake off after the short stop at the engine shed :-). After the ride we bought more postcards (well we had a lot of people to send them to) and adjourned to the cafe for a light lunch of soup and a scone and coffee/tea. (note: we keep buying postcards, that doesn't mean they are getting written)

Once again, we dashed off at the last minute - this time to the Ffestiniog railway, and once again Phil said thanks to his priv card as the ticket price went down lots. The train journey was superb - very long and we climbed to a great height. The scenery was awesome and enhanced by the length of the journey. The railway itself was run in more of a commercial way and didn't have quite the friendly feel of the Tallylyn railway. It also apparently had some very odd looking lights and semaphore signals.

We met the Llandudno train at Blaneau Ffestiniog with about a 4 or 5 minute change built into the timetable (National rail actually waiting for connecting steam trains - you won't find that around anywhere else)

We got off at Bets-y-coed to have a look at the Conwy railway museum. It was fairly small but incredibly well done. (there are quite a few these little treasures around the country and it's always a nice surprise to stumble upon one). It had a drive-it-yourself truck thing for very small bods, an 8 minute narrow gauge railway around the site for everyone, complete with a barrier/lights/bells level crossing across the footpath to the centre of the site, just to make it more interesting. There was a steam and a diesel train running on the track and we, obviously, had to go on the steam one. They also had a mini tram running the length of the site. The museum itself had several model railways to play with, a miniature, narrow gauge train with detailed history and lots of interesting maps/signs/posters and other railwayana. Very, very interesting! As usual, we got booted out as it closed at 5pm so we wandered back to the proper station and had tea/coffee while waiting for the late train to turn up and take us to Llandudno.

There was more nice scenery on the way as we passed through lots of request only stops. When we got to Llandudno, Jo was tired and a bit grumpy so we asked directions towards the B&B's (this was the only place where we hadn't booked anywhere in advance). The smaller ones we all full (except those charging one night supplements) so we ended up in a middle sized place - The Cumberland Hotel - and had a relaxing shower before heading out again for Chinese. Later that evening Phil was complaining about a numb arm, so after phoning NHS direct, we had to go to the hospital about 1am. They determined it wasn't life threatening and sent him back to the hotel where we fell asleep very fast. (We later found out that the weight of the flask in the rucksack had been cutting into a nerve in his arm)

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